


Why So Nervous?

by Jeffreysandal



Category: Clarence (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Fanfiction, Fluff, Future Fic, Gay Panic, M/M, One Shot, Secret Crush, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:48:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26716279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeffreysandal/pseuds/Jeffreysandal
Summary: Sumo's little crush gets in the way of his work, but it all ends up even better in the end.
Relationships: Belson Noles/Clarence Wendle, Jeff Randell/Ryan "Sumo" Sumouski
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Why So Nervous?

The sun was beaming brightly this afternoon, Sumo was out digging through the junkpile in his yard, looking for more wooden planks. Sumo was always a fanatic with building things, fixing things. His new project was a work shed. He found two good enough long planks of wood and carried them with one of his arms, he grabbed his toolbox and made his way back to his unfinished project.

The dogs were all outside within the fence, all playing around in the dirt and ripping up toys. Sumo looked at them all and laughed quietly to himself. He'd join them and play around a bit, but he was focused on finishing his shed. He was just about done, anyhow.

Tanner walked outside the trailer onto the deck. Sumo noticed him, but kept walking on in hopes he wouldn't talk to him. Tanner was just annoying to him in general.

"Hey, Sumo!" He called out, leaning against the railing.

"Whats up, Tanner?" Sumo replied nonchalantly, stopping in his tracks.

"Heheh, after you're done building that there shed, you gonna build you and your lady-friend a house?" 

Sumo bit his lip on the inside. His face warmed up a touch and he looked to the side.

"Uh.. yeah," he stammered, "my lady friend." 

Tanner scoffed and stood up straight. He pointed a finger gun towards Sumo and went back inside. Sumo stood their for a moment before he turned and began walking again.

Sumo had a very difficult time expressing his feelings. It's just how he was raised, he never had too much of the soft stuff. Most things he showed through actions rather than words. His family especially doesn't know about his silly mushy crush on his square-headed friend, Jeff. The uptight, neat freak, worry wort Jeff. Much like how he is with everybody else, Sumo's a very touchy person. But when he teased and pushed Jeff around, it was sort of his way of getting behind how he felt about him.

He was a tough guy, sympathetic and sweet and all, but overall his persona showed he was the 'carefree one'. But all of a sudden, whenever it comes to Jeff, it turns into more of an act. He never wanted to admit it to himself, but the boy makes him get butterflies. And he hated it. He couldn't help how he liked his little nose, and his soft hair, and his little hands that smelt of sweet scented hand sanitizer. 

Sumo snapped back into reality and hadn't noticed that he wasn't even moving, it was like he just paused in time. He got too caught up in his thoughts it seems. He shook his head and looked at his shed. Just needed two more planks for the doorway. He smiled proudly at his work. He fixed up a car for himself a while ago, and even added onto the treehouse hideout. It was his passion to make things.

He leaned the planks against the structure and put down his tool box. He bent down to pull out his hammer and some nails. He then took one of the planks and held it in place for him to hammer in, lining up the nail perfect enough and hit it in with a single swing. Sumo was feared in the family for whoever had to stump him for anything, he was just really good with hammers.

As he was lining up the next nail, Sumo found himself getting lost in his thoughts again. He couldn't wait to show the others his shed when it was finished. Maybe Jeff will be really impressed and compliment his work. Oh, Jeff. He is always so kind to Sumo, even though Sumo messes with him a lot.

He always spoke to him in a soft tone, and would stutter every time he was yelling at Sumo not to do something. His sweaters he always wore were never wrinkled, and the cuffs of his undershirt were perfectly folded the same. Him and Sumo seemed to be polar opposites, but something always pulled them together.

Without thinking about what he was doing, Sumo took a swing with his hammer and directly hit the back of hand. He dropped the hammer and dramatically yelled a loud raspy yell to the sky. The dogs in the yard went wild, running towards him and sniffing around, jumping on him. He cringed when he saw how red his hand was. 

One of the dogs shot its head up and looked over, the other dogs followed along with the same action in unison. They began running and barking at something else. Jeffrey!

Jeff closed the gate behind him as he walked into Sumo's yard. He looked at Sumo who had his eyes shut, holding his hand tightly. Making it through with all the dogs following him, he walked towards Sumo.

"Hey-"

"AH!" Sumo turned around quickly and started punching at the air before he realized it was just Jeff, who waved to him. He felt his face heat up again.

"You scared the shit outta me, Jeff!" He exclaimed, rubbing the back of his hurt hand.

"Sorry, sorry!" Jeff apologized as he held up his hands, "but you scared ME. I heard you yell while I was making my way here." He walked closer to Sumo.

Sumo shifted to hide that he was holding his hand.

"Are you hurt?" Jeff asked as he looked over to Sumos hands. Sumo looked at him nervously.

"Uh.. nooo?" He lied. Jeff took ahold of his hands and gasped at the sight of how swollen one of them looked. He held his hand delicately, and rubbed it with his other hand. Sumo cleared his throat, he was focused on Jeffs face. He tried to make it seem like he wasn't as shakey as he felt.

Jeff, always needing to be prepared, swung a napsack from over his shoulder to the ground. He bent down and opened it, pulling out a roll of bandage wrap. He stood up and took Sumo's hand in his once again, and carefully began to bandage up Sumo's hand.

"It doesn't even hurt." Sumo muttered out, in a sense where he attempted to sound confident, but it came out very hoarse. Jeff looked up at him with his eyebrows raised. It didn't seem like he bought it.

Sumo looked down at their hands. Jeffs hands were smooth, clean and his fingernails were all even. His hands hands, however, were rough, dirty and beat up. He bit the inside of his cheek hoping Jeff wasn't thinking bad of him for that. It felt stranger how suddenly he actually cared about that.

Jeff finished wrapping up Sumos hand and smiled. He placed a small kiss on the back of his hand.

"There, all better! I bet if I weren't here, you would've left it like that and not do anything about it" Jeff joked, and let out a small laugh. Sumo just looked at him with his mouth open slightly, his heart beat fast in his chest. Jeff looked at him, waiting awkwardly for him to say something. It took a few seconds too long before Sumo finally shook his head and said,

"Yeah, thanks. Guess I'll just finish the doorway later. Anyway, check it out! Pretty sick, huh? I can do all my work in here now!"

Jeff looked at the structure before him. He took a step inside to see a table, and tools hung up on the wall. He switched on a lamp that was sat on the table.

"Wow, Sumo! I remember back when the biggest thing you ever made was a birdhouse, this is really neat!" Jeff beamed brightly, turning to Sumo.

"Yeah, took me at least a week or somethin' like that. It's hard trying to work in a space where all my nosey siblings wanna see what I'm doing all the time." Jeff laughed at that. Sumo smiled at him.

Silence fell upon them for a few seconds. Jeff still smiled politely, holding his hands together.

"Hey, you wanna join us with our bonfire tonight? I already invited Clarence. We can just wait a little after my younger siblings marshmallow themselves out so we can actually reach the fire." Sumo offered, putting his hands in his coat pockets.

"Oh, sure! But I won't be having too many marshmallows, those things are pure sugar." Jeff said in response.

"Of course, Jeffrey. And anyhow-" Sumo was cut off by his dogs barking. The two walked outside of the shed and saw Clarence climbing over the fence. He stopped as he was uncomfortably on-top of it and yelled to them.

"Hey guys!" Clarence ended up falling to the ground from the fence because he lost his balance. The dogs all piled on-top of him, licking and sniffing him.

Jeff and Sumo looked at each other and laughed as they started to walk over to Clarence.

"There's a gate, y'know." Jeff said, sticking out his hand to help Clarence up. He was taken back by lifting him up to his feet.

"Yeah, but the gate takes too long to deal with. One day, I'll be jumpin' right over this fence. Just you wait and see, Jeffrey." Clarence proudly stated. Jeff rolled his eyes in response. Sumo laughed.

"Haha, yeah man! Like leap frogging all the way over it!" He chuckled. Clarence laughed along with him as they highfived. Jeff folded his arms.

"You two keep dreaming, I'll stick to what normal savilians do, properly using a gate for its purpose." Clarence and Sumo ignored Jeff's comment and continued to joke around with each other.

A few hours later, after some normal hanging out and goofing around, the three of them finally got the bonfire to themselves. They sat on the logs surrounding it, Jeff and Sumo took up one and Clarence sat on another. The fire crackled calmly as the boys set up their marshmallow roasting sticks. 

Out of nowhere, Belson of all people walked up towards them in silence looking at his phone, and sat down next to Clarence. Sumo looked at him with a disgusted look, Clarence gasped happily and jumped up and down.

"Clarence, you invited Belson to my house without-" Sumo tried to get out but was cut off by Clarence.

"BELSON! Oh my gosh, Belson, you came here just in time!" Clarence clapped his hands together.

"Yeah, whatever. Make me a smore." Belson quietly said with slight irritation in his voice. Clarence smiled wide and giggled, way too overjoyed to see Belson. He agreed to making him a smore happily.

"Belson, I didn't say you could come here. Are you really just gonna sit there and have Clarence feed you marshmallows?" Sumo questioned angrily.

"What, you gonna make leave or something?" Belson looked up and looked at Sumo with a careless face. Sumo looked over at Clarence, who was still smiling as he set up a smore for Belson. He turned and squinted at Belson, who stuck his tongue out at him.

Sumo wasn't just gonna take that away from Clarence, as much as he hated Belson. He looked on the bright side, at least he had Jeff here too. Jeff tries not to get too involved with talking down Belson. He sat there quietly roasting his marshmallow, trying to get every side perfectly golden.

Jeff turned to Sumo, who didn't realize he was staring at him for a little bit too long. He turned away but quickly turned back again. He smiled with his sharp teeth brightly towards him nervously. Jeff smiled back and turned back to his marshmallow. 

Clarence seemed to still be bothering Belson, who didn't shoo him away for whatever reason. Sumo shrugged it off and started to make a smore for himself.

Jeff let out a small screech as he threw his stick. His marshmallow had caught of fire and it startled him. He steadied his breathing again but then frowned, realizing he just threw his stick in the fire.

"Oh jeez, I'm terrible at roasting things over a fire." He seemed to be very upset over the fact that he couldn't get something to be perfect. Sumo looked over to him with a sad look. He looked down at his smore. He threw it into the fire along with his stick. The others looked at him confused.

"Idiot." Belson muttered out under his breath. Sumo gave him a quick angry glance then turned to Jeff.

"Sumo, why'd you do that?" Jeff asked him.

"Well, if you can't roast anything then I won't either. Therefore you won't have to be alone on something." He replied, resting his arms on his legs. Jeff looked a little guilty, but smiled at him.

"That was very sweet of you" he said, wrapping his arms around Sumo, leaning his head against him as he embraced him. Sumo looked down at him and stiffled out a small laugh, a shade of red made its way upon his face. Jeff pulled back and happily looked at him. He turned to the fire and continued to lean against Sumo. 

Clarence held back his smile towards them, and looked back down to see what Belson was up to on his phone. He didn't wanna push anything, but he always saw something weird going on between the two of them. It made him happy.

Sumo had his head leaned atop of Jeff's head, they both watched the fire that was surprisingly still going. The flames flew up and danced with the night sky. Everyone seemed to be content.

Tanner, back on the porch outside the quiet trailer, watched the scene as he smoked on the railing. He smiled seeing Sumo and Jeff together, he didn't question his brother about it, but he stayed silently happy for him. He'll never be up to admitting it.

The boys near the fire were too comfortable in the outdoors and decided to just camp outside. Belson was about to leave when he saw Clarence's look of sadness, so he silently decided to stay as well. They all helped set up the tent and sleeping bags and slept outside in Sumo's yard peacefully until the sun greeted the day once again.


End file.
